Chapter Fourteen

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It is a rainy Saturday afternoon when Louis is startled by the doorbell that rips him out of his cleaning session. He has just started dusting his bookshelves, mimicking Baby Spice's part of Wannabe while shaking his hips to the song coming out of his speakers. He stops his dance party and presses the pause button on his phone, before walking towards his front door with furrowed eyebrows. As far as he is concerned, he's expecting nobody.

Completely forgetting to look through the peephole first, Louis opens the door and is surprised as the small frame of his girlfriend comes in sight, next to a rather huge suitcase.

"Hey," she says with a shy smile, taking a step forward to hug him quickly, while Louis is a little overwhelmed, not knowing where to put his arms and the duster in his hands.

His awkwardness and her hurry result in their heads crashing together in a hurtful way, making her ramble apologies and Louis telling her it's nothing, although he can see little stars swirling behind his eyelids. They always seem to lose their feeling for each other a little when they're so long apart, he thinks.

He steps aside and motions for her to come in, grabbing the handle of her luggage to pull it inside. After setting it down in the bedroom, he pads over to the living room, but keeps standing awkwardly in the doorframe. Jane is sitting on the sofa, brushing a hand through her long ponytail.

"Umm...," he begins, "I didn't, you know, forget anything, right?"

"What? Oh, no... I thought it would be a nice surprise to come home earlier," she replies, and Louis doesn't miss the hint of reproach in her voice, probably because he isn't showing the right amount of enthusiasm.

"I could have picked you up, you know...," he says, trying to not start off an argument within the first ten minutes.

"Yeah but as I said, I wanted to surprise you and asking you to pick me up would have ruined everything. I took a taxi."

Louis slowly nods his head. She probably only meant well and here he is, being thrown off by the fact that his girlfriend came home unexpectedly. He should be happy to see her after so many weeks, but actually he would have preferred to know about her plans to show up. It's not directly that she's disturbing anything but still... It is bringing a little more chaos in his routine than he finds bearable.

"I don't even get a welcome kiss?" Jane teases, ripping him out of his thoughts. He focuses his eyes on her to see if she is angry, but she actually smiles. She has probably noticed that Louis is a little taken aback by her appearance and is now trying to brighten the mood.

"Oh, umm... Sorry," Louis replies with a slight smirk, pushing himself away from the doorframe and strolling over to the sofa. He stops in front of her and bends down to quickly peck her lips, but she immediately wraps her hands around his neck to hold him in place and deepen the kiss.

He hums and tries to pull away after what feels like an appropriate amount of time for a welcome kiss, but she holds onto his shoulders and guides him to sit down next to her. He crouches on the sofa, awkwardly placing his hands on her waist when she straddles his lap. He has never been that uncomfortable with her, he doesn't understand what's wrong with him. She finally breaks the kiss, looking him in the eyes and brushing her thumb over his cheek.

"I missed you," she coos, tipping her chin forward to kiss him again, but Louis tilts his head to the side, so she only catches his cheek.

Louis would love to tell her that he missed her too and he certainly did, but he must also admit that didn't mind their sparse contact over the past few weeks as much as usually. His mind has been somewhere else. He has been busy brooding over a certain wedding and everything else that came with it and then scolding himself again for allowing his thoughts to drift back to this.

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